MONTSERRAT
1985 BIRDS BICENTENNIAL OF THE BIRTH OF JOHN J. AUDUBON STAMP ISSUES

Information and Reference of What was Found in the Format Archive and Elsewhere

Varieties and Proofs

Would YOU store YOUR specialized 1985 Audubon Birds varieties this way?

Information on this series is changing as more information is being discovered. This page and associated pages will be updated as more information is made available.

Dangerous modern fakes of this issue appearing first in 2014 are on the market. They have the correct perforation size!
Visit the linked page to define all of them and what to avoid.

The Newly Discovered Audubon Birds Reprints and Forgeries.
The 1985 Bicentennial of the Birth of John J. Audubon Birds stamps issued for Montserrat are a beautiful set and very colorful.
The series was quite a production for the Format Security Printers with the numerous images of birds portrayed on the individual stamps of the series. There are some errors and varieties that exist for this series thus making it quite a diverse and challenging project to complete.

There is no information on the actual quantities produced of varieties and such but we can pretty much assert that the practices of production for other series including the Leaders of the World Automobiles and Locomotives and the Royal Wedding series should coincide with this series as well. Due to the standard principles involved with production of stamps depicting royalty the practices would be the same for this series.

In my recovery of the Saint Lucia and Tuvalu side of the police evidence stock I received nothing for this series.

In the acquisitions of the Bileski estate I got a major portion (almost all) the missing color errors for Nevis. This is because only four press sheets were found in the printers archive. Even some of these were torn, wrinkled and damaged in ways from storage in the archive.
I therefore submit to you that apparently some varieties because of these conditions have now become very limited as to what the collector can obtain and thus have become increasingly of higher value. Try to find certain varieties of these on the market and you will find it nearly impossible to obtain!

The problem is that as mentioned above the forgers are now producing fake errors like inverts and missing values and fake color proofs ta boot! Therefore the market is now being flooded with them and is thus distorting what was actually printed by the Format Printers.

On this page I will try to break down what was produced (by Format), estimated quantities and valuation of the material.

Let's get started!

THE PERFORATED SINGLE STAMP VARIETIES


I will base the quantities produced on the standards used for other series mainly being the Leaders of the World Automobiles and Locomotives Series which obviously were of the same style as this series. Over and over again in the documentation recovered from the trials and directly from the printer the quantities produced for varieties is generally always the same.

For Montserrat progressive color proofs were retained!

For the normal issue being a popular topic and highly collected the quantities produced for the normal issue was around 75,000 sets. I base this on quantities produced for LOW trains and cars for Montserrat.

Pricing should run at the stated catalog values.

I have not seen any uncut press sheets of this issue.

NORMAL PERFORATED "SPECIMEN" OVERPRINTED STAMPS

Documentation and evidence show that:
Based on practices of the printer for other series 2,000 sets of specimen overprinted stamps were produced.
In searching the market I could find few offered.

Pricing based on the above places a set at $5-10.00.

PERFORATED VARIETIES




There exists two types of color "errors". Either missing the magenta or the yellow color.
Because there are several sources selling them it is probable that they were fully produced unlike the Nevis errors. Standard orders were for 3,000 sets. Unless proven otherwise pricing is based on the standard.

Pricing based on the above places a set of either color missing at $5-10.00.

Montserrat Fake 1985 Audubon Birds Missing Value Error Stamps

The missing value "errors" are from the 1991 reprinted stamps. Simple to tell the perforated ones have 27 perforation holes proving that perforated and imperforate stamps with this error come from that reprinting which was not done at Format and were never authorized by Montserrat.
The seller who is offering this block wants $200.00 for it!! Avoid, avoid, avoid! These "errors" were made by a stamp dealer who was and is bent on ripping you off! Other than missing color "errors" there are no other errors that were produced by the Format Printers for this issue.

That basically sums up the perforated varieties.

THE IMPERFORATE VARIETY

Standard print orders and practices were for 5,000 imperforate sets. Another 3,000 would be produced for the progressive color proofs.

Because of the forgery problem one should be wary of buying any imperforates of this issue. Up until now imperforates of this issue were rarely offered except with the color proofs. The above imaged came from a set of the color proofs. It is possible that the packs containing the imperforates were partially destroyed, lost or never produced at Format. There appears to be no presentation folders for this set either.

Pricing should run at $5-7.00 for a genuine set.

PROGRESSIVE COLOR PROOFS

Standard practice was to print 3,000 sets of the progressives.

All values exist as imaged.
An interesting note:
The last few years (2014-2016) sellers on eBay have been selling part of the issue in color proof form. I purchased some of the lots and verify that they are genuine. These sellers also sell many of the forgeries for this issue and many other issues that were originally printed by Format.
What is interesting is they are selling the full set of color proofs for the 30c and 55c values. They are selling the color proof set for the 15c value but it is missing the final proof. They are not selling the $2.50 high value at all!
There are other sellers who do have complete sets (all 4 values) though and they are offering them at reasonable prices. This evidence shows us that the possibility of the $2.50 value as progressives is a rarity. Also that the 15c final proof is also a possible rarity. The consistent sales by the sellers shows that all the rest of the proofs were retained.

Pricing for each value set should be at $5-10.00.

This basically sums up the stamp varieties for the Montserrat 1985 Bicentennial of the Birth of John J. Audubon Birds stamp issue. As new information and evidence is found it will be added to this page.

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